Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

Under the Wire: 1940

January 1940. "Marion Post Wolcott with Ikoflex and Speed Graphic in hand in Montgomery County, Maryland." Medium format acetate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Her speed graphic looks like a 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 sized one. Equipped with a Kalart range finder, it is likely an anniversary or pre-anniversary model. She has it equipped with a bag mag, which allowed fairly rapid changing of up to 12 sheets of film.

[The LOC notes on her sheet film photos there verify that size. -tterrace]

Although I've seen a small version of this photo before somewhere, I think it just now suddenly became my favorite Shorpy photo ever, because it has captured a beautiful moment (and a beautiful smile) in a way that very few of these FSA/OWA photos ever do. Even if it is somewhat posed, I imagine that the two of them were out on assignment together, and that she had been crossing under the barbed wire seeking a better vantage point for a photo (I've convinced myself that I can see her footprint trail behind her in the field), and that he saw an opportunity for a great photo of his own. The result is perfect. Now maybe some day I'll see the photo that she got while she was over there in the field.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo archive featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1960s. (Available as fine-art prints from the Shorpy Archive.) The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.